


Pinky Promise

by ToxicPineapple



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Bad Communication, Broken Promises, But not between Kaede and Tsumugi, Character Growth, Conversely, F/M, Friendships End, Healthy Relationships, Non-Hope's Peak AU, Promises, Unhealthy Relationships, bittersweet end, friendships, implied comfort, vent - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-10-02 00:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20447135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “friends forever, right?”tsumugi’s responding smile is a honey sweet ray of sunshine. flowers bloom in kaede’s heart and she smiles back, feels warmth shoot through her body and wrap around her like a blanket.“friends forever,” the blue haired girl replies, and squeezes tight.---Tsumugi is a liar.





	Pinky Promise

age ten, kaede isn’t looking where she’s going, and all of a sudden her surroundings are rushing past her and her head is knocking hard against someone else’s. smiley-face yellow stars dance before her vision but she manages to right herself, reaching out to help the stranger stand up straight too. hard marble is under her feet and she doesn’t think falling into it would be comfortable.

“i’m sorry,” kaede apologises right away, before the other person can even utter a sound. “i wasn’t watching my step.” and it’s the honest truth.

“neither was i,” a pair of teal eyes smile back at her through oval shaped glasses, like shooting stars in a sky usually clouded with light pollution. “so i’m sorry too.”

“it’s pretty lousy if we’re both sorry,” kaede chuckles. “let’s say we’re both forgiven and call it good?”

“sounds like a plan to me.” the blue-haired girl responds, and kaede allows her hand to fall from the girl’s arm, where she was stabilising her.

“i’m kaede, what’s your name? are you a first year too?”

“yeah,” answers the stranger. “tsumugi, nice to meet you. what’s your homeroom?

age eleven, the swing she’s sitting on is cold, but kaede barely notices it. her pinky, wrapped around tsumugi’s like it’s a cup of hot cocoa, is making her heart warm enough to melt ice, and that’s all that matters.

“friends forever, right?”

tsumugi’s responding smile is a honey sweet ray of sunshine. flowers bloom in kaede’s heart and she smiles back, feels warmth shoot through her body and wrap around her like a blanket.

“friends forever,” the blue haired girl replies, and squeezes tight.

age twelve, kaede’s phone vibrates and it’s three in the morning but she rolls over to check it anyway. glaring white light from her phone screen sends daggers through her eyes but she ignores it in favour of checking her messages.

tsumugi has texted:  _ i’m worthless. i don’t know why anyone even cares about me. _

kaede blinks the remaining sleep out of her eyes and lifts her arm to type out a response.

_ no you’re not. you’re my best friend. _

_ why? _

a stupid question but kaede hopes she doesn’t give a stupid answer.

_ because you are. _

age thirteen, kaede waits outside the main building of her new high school until she spots a blue head of hair and a wide grin appears on her face. she runs down the steps (which she hiked up almost an hour ago) and launches herself into a tight hug in tsumugi’s arms.

the other girl laughs, “we saw each other a couple weeks ago at our old school,” she points out, but hugs back anyway.

“i missed you either way!” kaede announces it to the world but mostly to her best friend, who humours her for a moment longer than perhaps she needs to before breaking the embrace.

their pinkies are linked between them as they walk up the stairs again, a reminder of the promise made two years ago that is yet to be broken.

_ don’t think that way,  _ kaede chastises herself. there’s no reason for it to be broken. they’re here in high school together. their bond is like iron. it won’t break.

age fourteen, kaede buries her face into a pillow, squeezes her eyes shut and feels tears escape anyway.

she doesn’t know why she feels this way but she does. she has no reason to feel this way but she does. nothing makes sense. nothing feels okay.

kaede grabs her phone, wishing she could make the pain end. she taps on her text conversation with tsumugi.

from several hours ago, sent by kaede:  _ are you busy this weekend? let’s go shopping!! <3 _

received but unopened. what reason does tsumugi have not to read it?

the blonde ignores the thought and throws her phone to the side, deciding not to trouble her friend with her stupid hormonal breakdowns. it’s just her period, or something. she’ll be fine in the morning.

(kaede wakes up in the morning to a text from tsumugi that reads:  _ sorry, can’t. rain check?  _ the blonde jumps upon seeing it and makes plans right away.)

age fifteen, kaede and tsumugi make a new friend. a couple, actually, named kaito and rantaro and shuichi and maki.

kaito is brave like the colour red and rantaro is relaxed like the ocean and shuichi is quiet like a hummingbird and maki is honest like the rain. they make kaede laugh, the higher notes on a piano, and they make her feel good about herself too.

when she’s cold kaito drapes his coat over her shoulders, remarking that she should take better care of herself. rantaro is fiercely protective, brotherly, kind. he looks out for her. shuichi is observant, and a wonderful listener, and he makes kaede’s chest feel warm and fuzzy. maki is cold and closed off but sometimes she’s real and present and she tells kaede kind things that mean so much more than the empty compliments the more talkative throw around like pieces of litter.

tsumugi smiles and laughs with them too, but kaede silently notes that it takes three messages at least each night to get her best friend to respond.

usually they’re unopened. sometimes they’re opened, though.

kaede figures it’s fine. she’s busy, is all. kaede’s just being needy.

age sixteen, tsumugi makes friends with a boy named kokichi.

kokichi doesn’t like kaede very much but kaede figures she’d be selfish to say anything about it so she doesn’t.

when kaede’s birthday comes around tsumugi tells her she can’t make the celebration. that day she posts on instagram about the great day she had at the beach and kokichi is tagged.

tsumugi doesn’t answer her texts anymore unless they have questions in them. kaede walks up to her and kokichi in the halls, says hello, and tsumugi smiles, but her responses are dry and empty.

kaede pretends it doesn’t affect her and brushes off her friends when they ask if she’s okay.

age seventeen, tsumugi stops answering kaede’s texts and dodges her at school.

at lunch she’s surrounded by a whole group of people who kaede doesn’t recognise.

kokichi isn’t there but kaede would be lying if she said she cared about that.

age eighteen, kaede and maki get into a fight. over something stupid really. it’s been almost a year since she and tsumugi talked, but as tears stream down her face in the middle of the night, she lies down on her side and texts the girl anyway.

_ hey, are you awake? sorry, i know we’re not friends anymore, i just… need someone to talk to. _

tsumugi doesn’t respond. kaede says more anyway.

_ you don’t like me anymore for some reason _

_ that’s okay, i mean, you don’t have to _

_ life is like that. people change and things change and all that _

_ i just miss you is all. _

_ i wish you didn’t stop liking me _

_ i wish you’d have told me what i did wrong, why we’re not friends anymore _

_ i wish you’d have given me a reason _

kaede has stopped crying by now but she feels numb and empty like a pill bottle for a prescription that no longer needs to be filled.

_ nevermind. i’m being stupid. goodnight _

she falls asleep that night and dreams of smiles like shooting stars and pinkies linked together like chains.

in the morning kaede wakes up to a new message.

_ you have been blocked by this number. _

age nineteen, tsumugi goes off to college. she doesn’t ask kaede what school she’s going to, but kaede knows where where she’s going.

not that it matters anyway. they’re not friends anymore.

kaede wonders sometimes what she did wrong. if she did anything wrong.

the answer is probably yes, even if kaito and shuichi and maki and rantaro and her newer friends tenko and himiko and gonta and kirumi and kokichi (!!) tell her that she didn’t.

friendships just don’t end like that, right?

unless tsumugi just got tired of her.

unless the world just shattered to tiny little pieces and rearranged so that she and tsumugi would no longer be friends and there were slightly less stars up in the night sky and cold swings and ugly tears at three in the morning and hugs for no reason in front of your new high school no longer existed.

kaede tells herself she doesn’t care about it anymore, but of course she does.

she’s never going to stop thinking about it. or caring about it. or feeling bad about it.

part of her is angry at tsumugi for leaving. part of her thinks tsumugi wronged her somehow.

all of her knows that if tsumugi came back and asked to be friends again, she’d say yes without skipping a beat.

age twenty, kaede falls in love with shuichi, and she teaches herself that maybe it wasn’t her fault.

age twenty one, she starts performing all over the place as a professional pianist.

age twenty two kaede falls and maki catches her. and then kaito catches her. and then rantaro and gonta and shuichi catch her.

age twenty three kaede falls and catches herself.

age twenty four kaede performs a show far from her home. shuichi is there. her friends are there. everyone who matters is there.

kaede wipes off her forehead when she climbs off the stage, fingers tired from playing the piano so hard and so passionate but throbbing in the best of ways.

someone walks up to her. kaede doesn’t look up immediately; she’s busy.

but then she does.

teal eyes are smiling at her like shooting stars in a sky usually clouded with light pollution.

“hi, kaede.”

“...hi, tsumugi,” kaede utters. she doesn’t know what to say.

“you did lovely.” the blue-haired girl smiles. “i’ve been following your work all this time.”

“have you?” kaede feels uncomfortable. “that’s… sweet of you.”

“yeah. it’s kind of stupid considering how i ended our friendship all those years ago, huh? i hope you can forgive me for that.” tsumugi chuckles.

kaede says nothing.

“anyway, what are you doing after this? if you’re free, i’d love to stop by a bar and grab drinks or something, just like in the old days.” tsumugi smiles again, holds up a pinky like a promise made in the cold. “how about it?”

kaede opens and closes her mouth. years or even months ago before she turned twenty four she might have said yes. right now, though…

“kaede!” kaito’s voice from behind her. she can hear his smile through it. “where are you?”

“sorry, i’m busy.” kaede responds finally, gives tsumugi a terse smile and then turns around, ignoring pinpricks in her eyes as she starts walking away. “nice seeing you again, tsumugi.”

“wait, do you want to exchange numbers or something, so we can catch up some other time when you’re available?” tsumugi is frowning. kaede recognises her voice when she’s frowning. she recognises everything about her. tsumugi hasn’t changed. she hasn’t changed at  _ all.  _ “i miss being friends with you, y’know?”

“there you are!” kaito and maki find her through the crowd. shuichi and rantaro are behind them. shuichi’s smile is sweet, like rich chocolate rather than sunshine. “ready to go?”

kaede hesitates, then turns around to look at tsumugi. “i’m glad you have a life now.” she says. “but i don’t want to exchange numbers. thanks for coming to my show.” she turns back to kaito, allows herself to smile, and means it. “yeah. let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> sorry :/ venting about smth that happened to me today
> 
> I couldn't find it in myself to give this an unhappy ending but suffice to say I don't have the same resolution as Kaede does :^)
> 
> yike


End file.
